Page 20 - Sri Canakya Niti

Preface to the First Edition

stand out as one of history’s most profound political thinkers. Today
in India’s capital city of Delhi, the diplomatic housing enclave bears
his name: Chanakya Puri.

The British scholar Dr. J.F. Fleet has written, “Kautilya (Chanakya)
is renowned not only as a king-maker, but also for being the greatest
Indian exponent of the art of government; the duty of kings, ministers

and officials; and the methods of diplomacy.” We are told that the

East India Company strongly urged its officers to study the writings
of Chanakya Pandit if they hoped at all to succeed in ruling India.

In his Artha Shastra, Chanakya Pandit identifies himself as being
responsible for the overthrow of the corrupt Nanda dynasty of
Magadha (present day Bihar State in Northern India). A brief account
of how he accomplished this is herewith given:

About 2300 years ago, the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great
invaded the Indian sub-continent. His offensive upon the land’s
patchwork of small Vedic empires proved to be highly successful
due to the disunity of the petty rulers. It was Chanakya Pandit who,
feeling deeply distressed at heart, searched for and discovered a highly
qualified leader in the person of Chandragupta Maurya. Although

a mere dasi-putra, that is, a son of a maidservant by the Magadha
King Nanda, Chandragupta was highly intelligent, courageous, and
physically powerful. Chanakya cared little that by birth he should
not have dared to approach the throne. A man of acute discretion,
Chanakya desired that only a ruler of extraordinary capabilities be
raised to the exalted post of King of Magadha so that the offensive
launched by the Yavanas (Greeks) could be repressed. 1

Legend says that Chanakya had been personally offended by King
Nanda, and that this powerful brahmana had vowed to keep his long
shikha unknotted until he saw to the demise of the contemptuous ruler
and his drunken princes. True to his oath, it was only after Chanakya

1. Chanakya shares his opinion of India’s Greek invaders in 8.5.

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